www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology St. George

Most of us are familiar with the story of St. George the Great. We also are familiar with the famous Icon of St. George.
St. George Icon [holydormition.com]

How much of the story and the Icon of St. George can be attributed to paganism, folklore, or legend? For example, here is a link to an ancient Roman mosaic. Hero Bellerophon [theoi.com]
The website states,
After recently running accross this website I wonder what do we really know about St. George? Could he be another St. Philomena? [en.wikipedia.org]

No doubt a lot of stuff has been added to the story of St. George. However, the basic story is "plausible", if you will. St. George was an officer in the Roman Army, from Palestine. During one or another persecution, they asked him to worship idols. He refused, and was martyred.

In fact, I'm told that that the most traditional depiction of him is as a Roman soldier-martyr (e.g. like Saints Demetrios, Eustatius or the various Theodores). Kind of like this [skete.com] icon, or also like this other [skete.com] one.

By the way, the icon of St. George and the Dragon is in my view not to be looked at literally, but rather with noetic eyes:

- St. George is slaying the dragon - which of course represents the Serpent of the Garden of Eden. As Ps. 90 says, the Christian will tread and trample "Upon the asp and basilisk ... [and] lion and dragon" all of which represent in the psalm the powers of Hades, Satan, the world, sin, etc.

- St. George fights the dragon with a spear. This represents the spiritual weapons each Christian wields in fighting the dragon in his/her own life.

- St. George is rescuing a princess as others look on froma a castle - these people represent the Church. By his martyrdom, he frees the Church from captivity to the dragon.

- St. George is blessed by a hand in the sky, which of course is the hand of Christ.

- finally, St. George is crowned by an angel as he slays the dragon. Both represent his ultimate victory; for in real life he won the victory against the dragon when he received the crown of martyrdom.

St. George, pray for us!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh Lord although I desired to blot out
With my tears the handwriting of my many sins
And for the rest of my life to please thee through sincere repentance;
Yet doth the enemy lead me astray as he wareth
Against my soul with his cunning.
Oh Lord before I utterly perish do thou save me!

So, the stories of St. George are figurative not literal. This makes sense...

Um, not quite. I'd say the "basic" story of his martyrdom is literal (in fact this is really the only story I know). If there are other stories about him killing dragons and such, I would then say "yes that's figurative".

I know that that sounds like I'm splitting hairs, but it's an important distinction.

Markos
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh Lord although I desired to blot out
With my tears the handwriting of my many sins
And for the rest of my life to please thee through sincere repentance;
Yet doth the enemy lead me astray as he wareth
Against my soul with his cunning.
Oh Lord before I utterly perish do thou save me!

Dear MarkosC,

I believe we could also say the dragon slayed by Saint George, through his martyrdom, was paganism and all the fears and superstitions that went with it.

Other than Saint George being the patron saints of soldiers, he also cures neurological problems, etc. I recently read that there is a church in the Middle East where both Christians and Muslims take those who are feeblemind and/or have other mental problems, to be cured.

God Bless,

Zenovia

Dear Friends,

I remember giving a talk to a branch of the St George's Society near Midland, Ontario on the subject of Saint George.

A question I was asked by someone there was how credible are the stories about the way St George was martyred, the various tortures inflicted on him, etc.?

It then occurred to me that St George suffered nothing that the Jesuit Martyrs in that area suffered at the hands of the Iroquois closer to our time . . .

And we have written accounts of what they suffered, so what happened to St George should be no surprise . . .

Alex

Dragons? No. A real St. George? Certainly. He was venerated as a martyr from the early days of the Church. I read somewhere that George was a career military officer with the Roman army. His unit was stationed in North Africa, and then it was transferred to Syria / Palestine. At the time, there was a de facto "don't ask, don't tell" policy of tolerance by the Roman government towards Christians. Then, a new emperor (Diocletian?) took power, and he decreed a persecution of Christians. George took the decree and tore it up, whereupon he was martyred. He has since been the patron saint of Christian soldiers.

-- John

Dear Friends,

Actually, St George was a missionary who defended and promoted the Church which is why he is depicted as a soldier spearing evil (also the wiles of the emperor who attacked the Church) to defend the Virgin in the picture who is the Church.

He is the ONLY universal Martyr of the Church, meaning there is NO church anywhere that does not have him in their calendar. No other Martyr may boast this (not that Martyrs are particularly given to boasting . . .).

When in the Holy Land, King Richard the Lion-Heart was surrounded by Saracens numbering three times his army. Being not too far from Lydda where the Shrine of St George was, King Richard and his men implored St George to help them.

Then it seemed to them that a Red Cross appeared on a white cloud above them. Buoyed by this, King Richard and his men defeated their larger enemy . . . and Richard then declared St George to be patron of England - later he became patron of knights and kings. He is the patron of Ontario and his Cross adorns our provincial coat of arms. Georgia is a country that is actually named for St George!

It is traditional to give a rose for St George's Day which is also done in Cataluna and Barcelona on April 23rd.

The "code" used to depict ST George was common among Christians who developed other codes like the Fish symbol etc.

Alex

Does anyone know of a good book on St. George? He sounds like a fascinating Saint.